After the recent announcements of DC Comics’ new original super-hero graphic novel line and Marvel’s Girl Comics came swiftly under fire in an explosion of controversy, it’s time to ask ourselves: are we, super-hero fans, too fickle, and can the major publishers ever hope to win us all.
It started last Monday, when DC announced that it would be launching a new series of graphic novels next year, rebooting the Superman and Batman franchises to do it. The controversy began almost immediately: Some (like myself) thought it will be a great opportunity to build a new audience outside of the direct market; others, both fans and retailers, were frustrated that DC would bother to build a new continuity around these characters when DC was publishing a miniseries revamping Superman right now.
Yesterday saw the announcement of Girl Comics, a Marvel miniseries to be created totally by women in the industry. Again, the split in opinions was swift and dramatic: On one side were those (again, like myself) who thought this will be an opportunity to spotlight female creators in a male-dominated industry, while others felt that the very idea was a slap in the face of the men who work in this industry.
Then, last night, Newsarama published an interview with Matthew Sturges, who is taking over writing chores on The Web starting in February. The Web is one of properties owned by Archie Comics that have been licensed and redesigned by J. Michael Straczynski and integrated into the greater DC Universe.
In the comments to that interview, one person raised a common complaint among super-hero fans: why is DC bothering to revamp these characters or developing new ones when they have perfectly fine characters like Aquaman being ignored or disrespected by the publisher?
In concept, I agree that the older characters should be respected more. On the other hand, concepts like Aquaman and others have failed to keep an audience time and time again. Imagine if you’re DC’s Executive Editor, Dan Didio, and you've tried to relaunch The Doom Patrol five times in the past ten years, and none of them have lasted more than 18 issues; when somebody says they have a killer Doom Patrol pitch, are you really willing to throw money at a concept that fans have failed to buy into several times already? (And, yes, Doom Patrol is a fine book, and the current iteration may be the one that succeeds, but the very fact that it's been up to the plate 3-4 times since 2000 shows us how strong a concept has to be in order to make it.)
I think it's easy and common for us as fans to be Monday morning quarterbacks about DC's and Marvel's (and Dark Horse's and Image' and Boom's) decisions without having all the facts. We don't know what goes into these decisions. Take Marvel's announcement of Girl Comics. Over the past week some prominent female bloggers and columnists have been discussing Marvel's possible misogynist tendencies, but when Marvel announces a miniseries created totally by women, people start complaining that the cover to #1 is misandristic (showing a hatred toward men) because it shows She-Hulk beating Iron Man in arm-wrestling. The publishers just can't win. If She-Hulk were shown beating Jim Rhodes instead of Tony Stark, somebody would accuse them of racism.
If DC and Marvel create new properties, they're not giving older characters their due; if they re-launch older properties, they can't think of anything new. If they create new characters with a strong tie to current popular characters, they’re being derivative; if they don’t, they’re being disrespectful. If they change the status quo of popular characters, they're alienating their fan base; and if they don't, they bleeding the properties dry.
I disagree with Didio and Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada as much as anyone else, and I have my pet characters whom I wish would get more play. But I also like new characters and new twists on old favorites. Without them, we wouldn't have Carter “Hawkman” Hall, Nathaniel “Captain Atom” Adam, Tim “Robin” Drake, and, of course, The Watchmen.
Enmity towards an entire publisher because of perceived slights against a fictional character seems misplaced. It’s like boycotting every Pixar movie because you don’t like how the tractors were treated in Cars.
I missed the original Red Circle specials, and I haven't been able to get The Web yet, but The Shield is as good as anything I've read in super-hero comics recently. If you choose to pass on the Red Circle characters (or any new concept) because you feel a sense of betrayal by the publisher, that's your choice. But it's also your loss, because you are missing out on some damn fine super-hero comics.
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